Beigli Pastry Rolls with Walnut or Poppy Seed Stuffing

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A traditional HungaryChristmas Eve dinner is not complete without beigli. This pastry can be made a few days, even a week before Christmas so you do not have to make all courses for the dinner on one day.

Prepare the poppy seed fillingBring the water with the sugar in it to the boil. Remove the mixure from the heat and pour onto the ground poppy seed. Mix in the drained raisins, the vanilla sugar and ground cinnamon and cloves. Add grated rind of a lemon and 1 tablespoon of its juice.

Prepare the walnut fillingBring the milk with the sugar in it to the boil. Remove the mixture from the heat and pour onto the ground walnuts. Mix in the drained raisins, the vanilla sugar and grated rind of an orange.

Prepare the doughWarm the sour cream a bit. It should be lukewarm. Add the egg to the sour cream and mix it. Crumble yeast in the mixture.

Add diced butter to the flour, sprinkle it with 50 g castor sugar and a pinch of salt. Mix in sour cream with the yeast in it and knead a dough. Make 4 loaves, wrap them up in clingfilm and let them rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours (even better, if you leave it there for a whole night).

Knead the loaves a bit. Roll them out into a 1/2 cm thick rectangle on a floured board. Spread filling onto the dough, leave out a 2-3 cm strip at the longer side. Fold back a 2-3 cm strip at the shorter sides (prevents the stuffing from coming out).

Roll the dough up and place them in buttered oven dish. Brush the top of the rolls with slightly beaten egg yolk and let them rest for 30 minutes. Spread the rolls with egg white, it gives a nice glaze. Let rolls rest for another half an hour. Prick the top and the sides of the rolls with a fork, it prevents cracking.

Bake the beigli in preheated oven at 180*C for about 40 minutes until the top gets a nice brown colour. In the first 20 minutes do not open the oven.

Let pastry cool in the oven dish. Cut the rolls into slices if you want to serve them immediately. Otherwise wrap the rolls in clingfilm and store them in cool, dry place. You can store them for 2-3 weeks. They're very nice with a cup of tea or coffee. Beigli can also be frosted.